I thought we would open a thread for all Advan Neova Cup Competitors to introduce themselves. This is where you can talk about your setup, ask questions, help other competitors, post up track days, talk about your track day experience and post up pictures of your car.

New competitors Jack Cuu and Heath Russell from QLD have joined the Cup. Jack Cuu posted a time of 1.02.06 and Heath Russell 1:02.76 at Willowbank. So as you can see there isn’t much in it. Picture of Jack’s car (white s15)

Jack had to say: Those times were set on some really old crappy AD07's tires (belt almost showing)... they were on the rims i bought it 2nd hand.I'm probably moving on to semi slicks soon. I do have a new set of ad08 for the front. I might buy another set for the rear to set some better times for this Neova cup.Sub 60sec is definitely possible with new tyres and more development with pressures and alignment... will update in the future. I'm a big fan of the AD07/ AD08 tyres... i won a time attack event in Taiwan on AD07's in 2009 (Option Cup RWD Class) in a Porsche C2 996.

And this morning Heath Russell sent me his time and the pic of his tyre and wheel combo.

Love my Advan Neova Tyres, have been using them for years and have steadily improved my PB, i believe they would be capable of sub 1m times at Queensland raceway.

Gerry Kolaitis is the first Evo owner to join the Wakefield Neova Cup leaderboard in his Evo TME 6.5 setting a PB of 1:11.43. Bumping him up to P1 in the 4WD Turbo Open class and Out right fastest. However there is still hope for Daniel Leong’s s2000 with only a 0:00.35 gap, taking back the lead shouldn’t be a problem.

“First time I have ever raced this car on street tyres at any track, and they really surprised me. I’ve always raced with R Compound rubber, and to be honest I really didn’t feel much difference between the AD08 and the A048 I usually use! The AD08 seem to just wear off a bit quicker. My times are within 0.5-1 sec slower on AD08. For a rwd making big power, I have plenty of traction! I have been attending track days for a few years now, never been in anything competitve, until 2011 WTAC Clubsprint class. Im keen to do well in the RWD class”.

Advan Neova Cup and Auto Obsession wishes him the best of luck and godspeed.

ADVAN Neova Cup competitor BMW 135i to take on Japanese rocketsin Clubsprint Class at World Time Attack

01/08/11: THE WORLD TIME ATTACK challenge at Eastern Creek is the land of the Rising Sun; an eventdominated by Japanese machinery. Though he has fought with an oriental arsenal in the past, drifter turned tarmacrally driver Adam Newton has turned to German weaponry - a BMW 135i - to take on the Clubsprint class.“There are some pretty intimidating Japanese cars in this category, but I like the Clubsprint concept of the owneralso being the driver and the car needing to be street legal,” Newton explained. “It evens out the playing field, andalso keeps your budget and your car planted in the real world. This type of car – a rear-wheel drive, shortwheelbase turbo six from Deutschland – is a complete unknown quantity. This will be its first race; hopefully thisshakedown will also shake up the competition!”

The Clubsprint class is the most restricted in the WTA field, with cars required to be close to standard form.Vehicles must be road registered, and the registered owners must drive the cars themselves. Engine size,aspiration, driven wheels and exhaust must remain as standard, while coilovers, bigger wheels and brakes, mildaero mods and gear sets can be added.

The build and preparation by Southern BM has resulted in a significant power and torque increase, exceptionalhandling, bigger brakes, and an upgraded BMW Performance interior. In adhering to the strict Clubsprintregulations, Southern BM focused on power and traction, with a Proceede ECU, Quaife LSD, KW V3 coiloversuspension, and an upgraded exhaust. The brakes have been beefed up with a hug set of 355mm PerformanceFriction Z Rated Street Kit fronts and BMW Performance rear brakes, framed by 19-inch Advan RZ rims wrapped inAdvan Neova AD08 rubber. Inside, the cabin is decked out with BMW Performance seats, pedals, steering wheel,gear stick and Sabelt four-point harnesses to tackle the task at hand.

The result is a car for all occasions, with the ECU capable of switching between a 120kW ‘valet’ mode, to a 200kWstreet mode, to the hard charging 280kW race mode. From daily driver to racing rocket, the BMW 135i is theepitome of a Clubsprint car.

Most significantly for the Clubsprint cars are the tyres; the rubber must have a UTQG rating higher than 120. Inother words, a radial or street-legal road tyre must be used. This makes it the perfect playground for Newton’s 135i,which was originally set up for the new ADVAN Neova Cup series.

The ADVAN Neova tyre has already clocked a 1:44.37 at Eastern Creek Raceway - quite a feat for a street-legalroad tyre - and its competitive track record led Yokohama to set up the Neova Cup: a challenge to the Australiantrack-day racer. The only prerequisite for the series is the footwear – the car must be shoed with Neova tyres. Norollcages, race cars or race suits are required. Drivers simply attend any timed track day using Natsoft timingequipment, set a lap time, and fill out the ADVAN Neova Cup entry form. The leaderboard atwww.advanwheels.com.au reveals the rest... Winners of each class will be awarded a trophy, and a mysterymajor prize will be given to the outright fastest and be added onto the Yokohama ADVAN hall of fame.Newton just topped the Advan Neova Cup leader board at Winton Raceway with a 1.39.28sec in testing over theweekend. This is over six seconds faster than the current second placeholder, and puts him in good stead for theWorld Time Attack challenge in three days time.

On the 3rd of September Circuit club cruised down Wakefield park. It was a perfect day for smashing out a few laps. Brandon (DC2R) and Anthony (Evo 9) were there to improve their times in the Neova cup.

Narada (From JDMST, Circuit club) was there to capture some shots of Brandon and Anthony pushing hard on the Yokohama ADVAN AD08s.

Brandon in his red BYP Integra managed an impressive time of 1:07.19 which further increases his lead on the Wake field leader board and in the FWD class.

Anthony managed to get his laptime down to a 1:13:13 which puts him number two in the 4WD under 250KW class.